Cinnamon blondies

If I were American, I’d probably call these ‘snickerdoodle blondies’. Because if I were American, I probably wouldn’t have got to the age of 24 without having ever eaten, seen or been near a snickerdoodle cookie – as it is, I thought it would feel a bit fraudulent making blondies in their name, which is why these are simply cinnamon blondies.

They were super easy to make and turned out really well. Although they look a bit cakey in the photos, they had just the right amount of fudgyness to definitely be a proper blondie rather than just a cake bar.

In fact, I may make this my go-to blondie recipe, as the cinnamon sugar topping could easily be left off and any number of add-ins thrown in.

The thing I like most about them is that they aren’t dripping in buttery grease, which is what put me off blondies for about a year after my first disastrous attempt!

Now all I need to do is actually go make a snickerdoodle cookie!

Cinnamon blondies (recipe adapted from Baking Bites)

Makes 16 small squares

• 115g butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 120g plain flour
• 100g white chocolate, chopped
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1tsp cinnamon

Beat the butter and sugar together until well creamed. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat again, then fold in the flour and white chocolate chips. Spread the mixture into a greased and lined 8×8″ square baking tin, then mix together the remaining caster sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly on top. Bake at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool then cut into squares and serve.

Summer berry white chocolate muffins

Is it just me, or is shopping for a newborn baby really hard?

I don’t have any younger family members and have always been pretty awful around children, so when it came to visiting my friends and their new baby for the first time I was a little daunted.

The advice other people gave me didn’t help either – don’t get toys, they’ll have loads already, don’t get newborn clothes, get 3/6/9 months clothes, but think about what time of year it will be when they get that old, etc etc…

Luckily, deciding what baked goods to take wasn’t anywhere near so tricky.

These muffins are quick and easy to make, transport well, suit both fruit and chocolate lovers, easy to eat while rushing around looking after baby and are nice and summery too – perfect!

The muffins went down well, and the baby gift I eventually decided on (tiger, lion, crocodile and zebra socks) was also ok, I think – at least socks can never be out of season…

Summer berry and white chocolate muffins (for baby Ethan!) (adapted from these muffins)

Makes 7 muffins (6 for the gift box, 1 for testing!)

• 140g plain flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 75g caster sugar
• 100g frozen mixed summer berries (any large ones chopped)
• 100g white chocolate, chopped
• 1 egg
• 125ml milk
• 3tbsp sunflower oil

Combine the flour, baking power and caster sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk together the egg, milk and sunflower oil then pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Fold until the mixture is just combined, then stir in the berries and 75g of the chocolate. Divide between 7 muffin cases, then sprinkle the remaining chocolate on top. Bake at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until risen and golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Homepride chocolate chip cookies – a Random Recipe

This month’s random recipe challenge, set by Dom of Belleau Kitchen, was to pick a random recipe from the 17th book in your collection.

For me, this was ‘Baking with Homepride Flour’, my oldest cookbook.

Now, I have a confession to make – the selection of these chocolate chip cookies wasn’t completely by chance.

Not because I cheated at all, but because I have made the recipe so many times I think the book automatically falls open at that page…

As much as I love chewy, American-style chocolate chip cookies, these will always hold a special place in my heart as I’ve been making them for as long as I’ve been baking.

They’re almost shortbread like in texture, quite crumbly and soft, studded with delicious chunks of chocolate (I double the amount stated in the recipe – it’s better that way, trust me!

I probably wouldn’t have thought about making these old favourites if it hadn’t been for Random Recipes, so thank you Dom!

Homepride chocolate chip cookies (from Baking with Homepride Flour)

Makes 20 cookies

• 50g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 125g plain flour
• 75g self raising flour
• 100g chopped milk chocolate
• 100g chopped white chocolate

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla, then sift in the two flours and fold in with the chopped chocolate. Roll the mixture out into two long sausage shapes, about an inch thick, and wrap in cling film. Chill until ready to use (they freeze well if you don’t want to make them all at once.)

Heat the oven to 220 degrees. Slice each sausage of dough into 10 pieces, then flatten them out on a lined baking tray. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden. Leave on the tray for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Peanut butter blondies

In theory, I should love blondies.

Basically the same as brownies (which I love), but with the melted chocolate swapped out for brown sugar or white chocolate. I even thought I might prefer blondies, as I prefer plain cookies with chocolate chips to the double chocolate variety.

Unfortunately, my first attempt at blondies was not a success. They were far, far too sweet, and the brown butter in them that everyone raves about actually just seemed to make them greasy.

Although my first experience was a bad one, I was willing to accept that it could have just been a bad recipe, or maybe down to my dodgy oven, so I decided to give them another go.

I chose this recipe from Rachel Allen because the pony had requested something with peanut butter. Not being a fan of peanut butter normally, I was fully expecting not to love these, but no – they were amazing!

They were literally so addictive, I couldn’t stop eating them. To the point that I put on two pounds in the past week and fully attribute it to these blondies.

If, unlike me, you can actually exercise portion control and self restraint, you should definitely make these – I am now a 100% blondie convert.

Peanut butter blondies (adapted from Rachel Allen’s recipe)

• 250g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 200g butter
• 300g crunchy peanut butter
• 350g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 150g white chocolate, chopped

Cream together the butter and peanut butter until well mixed, the add in the sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, then sift in the flour and baking powder and fold to combine. Stir in the chocolate, then pour into a 9×13 ” tin, lined with baking paper. Bake at 170 degrees for 25 minutes, then leave to cool before cutting into squares.

White Chocolate Chip Fudge (sort of)

Christmas has been on my mind pretty much since September, but now we’re in December it’s officially ok for me to let the world know about it!

I’ve been thinking ahead to sweet treats that I could give as gifts this year, and one I was pretty set on was fudge.

Luckily I started early, as the trial version I made this weekend didn’t go quite to plan! I followed this recipe for white chocolate chip fudge, as it seemed relatively simple, but somewhere along the way I must have gone a bit wrong, as what I ended up with was more of a soft toffee-ish mixture…

I used a sugar thermometer so it definitely got to the right temperature, but I’m wondering whether I should have kept stirring it for longer than the recommended 5 minutes as I’ve seen other recipes that say you have to stir until the gloss has gone…

It was pretty close though, and for my first attempt at fudge I’m not too disappointed. I’m definitely going to try again, so if anyone has any tips please let me know!

Right, now I’m off to put up the tree!

(I’ll wait until I’ve perfected it to post the recipe, but the original is from BBC Good Food).

Turtle shortbread biscuits

A couple of months ago now, I saw a turtle shaped cookie cutter on ebay and obviously bought straight away, full of excitement for turtle shaped biscuits.

When it arrived however, I knew that it wouldn’t really be right to use it until I’d be able to decorate the biscuits in the manner they deserved – which meant waiting until I had green food colouring.

Last week I finally got around to buying the green paste colouring, and these biscuits are the result!

Unforunately I couldn’t find a good light that really showed the colour of the turtles, this is the best I could do, although the picture isn’t great:

I was really happy with how they looked though – super cute! And well worth the effort of icing.

Turtle shortbread biscuits:

• 50g caster sugar
• 100g butter
• 150g plain flour
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 140g white chocolate
• green food colouring paste
• splash of milk

Rub together the butter and flour until it forms breadcrumbs. Mix in the sugar and vanilla extract and work the dough until it comes together into a ball.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about half a centimeter thick, then cut out the biscuits and place onto a silicon baking mat. Bake at 180 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden brown.

While the biscuits are cooling, melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water, an add in a little of the green paste to make a light minty green colour. Spread a layer of chocolate on top of each biscuit, remembering to save some of the chocolate for the decoration. Put the biscuits in the fridge for the chocolate to set.

Once the first layer of chocolate is set, re-heat the melted chocolate and add in more of the colouring paste to make a darker green icing. I found that the amount I needed to use to make it dark enough thickened the chocolate too much, but mixing in a splash of milk fixed this. Spoon the dark green icing into a piping bag and pipe on the round shell, pentagon pattern and eyes. Leave to set.

Makes about 32 biscuits.

As this made over 30 biscuits, I gave some to my boss to take home for his two young boys, as one of them has been housebound since breaking his leg and ending up in a full leg cast. I don’t know much about children, but who wouldn’t be cheered up by these cute little turtles?! For that reason, even though I’m about a month late, I’m going to enter these for Vanessa’s Random Bakes of Kindness – an inspired and generous idea that has got lots of people baking for a good cause this autumn!

Cappuccino squares

The final instalment of barbecue cakes, at last!

These cappuccino squares are one of the friendly pony’s favourites, largely down to the super-sweet white chocolate icing.

The coffee cake is just strong enough to balance out the sweetness, and with the dusting of cocoa on top I think these look really pretty.

Cappuccino squares:

• 175g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 175g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1tbsp instant coffee granules, dissolved in 1-2 tsp cold water

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then gradually add the dissolved coffee until the mix is a nice coffee-brown colour (tasting at this point is optional if you’re funny about the raw eggs, but I like to check to make sure I’ve got it coffee-y enough). Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold until just combined. Spread the mix into a 8×8″ square tin, lined with greaseproof paper. Bake at 180 for 20-25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

For the icing:

• 150g white chocolate
• 50g butter
• 175g icing sugar
• Cocoa powder to dust

Melt the white chocolate and butter together over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from the heat when melted, and beat in the icing sugar until it all comes together and there are no lumps. Remove the cake from the tin and peel off the greaseproof paper. Line the tin with paper again, making sure it hangs over the edge, then put the cake back in. This will make it a million times easier to get the cake back out! Spread the icing over the top of the cake, then dust the cocoa powder lightly over the top. Leave until ready to serve, then cut into 16 squares.

Mini white chocolate and strawberry tarts

This is part 1 of my round up of cakes I made for our neighbourhood barbecue.

These little tarts are inspired by a Waitrose recipe for a large white chocolate and strawberry tart, which I’ve been making for years and has never let me down.

I decided to use a different pastry recipe, just to try something different, so I went with one that BBC Good Food also paired with white chocolate and strawberries (although I switched the hazelnuts for pecans as I had some spare pecans in the cupboard).

The end result was great, a really thin, crisp pastry, with a soft creamy white chocolate filling and delicious strawberries on top. I think they looked really pretty, and everyone seemed to like them, although the pony said they weren’t quite sweet enough for his tastes.

The quantities for the pastry below are actually double what you need, but I used half to make the banoffee pie tarts which I will post about soon. You could either double the filling or freeze half the pastry to make it the right amount!

Mini white chocolate and strawberry tarts:

For the pastry:

• 180g plain flour
• 60g icing sugar
• 1tbsp chopped pecans
• 90g butter
• 1 egg

Blend together the flour, sugar, pecans and butter in a food processor until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add in the egg and keep mixing until it comes together in a ball. The recipe says you can roll it out straight away, but I refrigerated it for an hour and still had to use quite a bit of extra flour to roll it out. Roll it fairly thinly, then cut out rounds large enough to fill cupcake tin holes (I don’t actually own any cutters so I used the lid of a Nutella jar, which did the trick!) Freeze for 20 minutes to stop the pastry shrinking, then blind bake for 10 minutes at 180 degrees, then for a further 3-5 minutes uncovered, until golden brown.

For the filling:

• 250g marscapone
• 100g white chocolate
• 75ml double cream
• 250g chopped strawberries

Heat the white chocolate with a quarter of the marscapone of a pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat then beat in the remaining marscapone, then stir in the cream. Decant into a jug, then pour into the pastry cases. I found this to be enough mix to fill 15 cases. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve, then top with the chopped strawberries. Delicious summery goodness!

White chocolate raspberry rose cake

For this month’s We Should Cocoa challenge, Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog chose rose as the special ingredient.

I instantly thought of a recipe for a white chocolate gateau from my favourite cookbook, Chocolate by Joanna Farrow. It uses creme fraiche mixed with rosewater as the filling for two white chocolate sponges, filled with buttercream.

Although that was the inspiration, I wasn’t utterly convinced by the creme fraiche idea, so I thought about how I could incorporate the rose into a different filling. Eventually I settled on making a raspberry rose jam, which would also serve the purpose of ticking jam off my to-bake list.

I was a little worried the cake would be too dry with just jam as the filling, so I also added some white chocolate cream cheese between each layer.

Just to go completely over the top I made white chocolate modelling paste roses and leaves to decorate the cake, and tie in with the rose theme.

This is a pretty grand cake, but luckily I had the perfect reason to make it, as one of my colleagues had her last day at work this week before going on maternity leave. Unfortunately she got sick and didn’t make it in for her last day, but we took the cake to her house instead and she was kind enough to give us half back to share in the office, which I think everyone had secretly been hoping she would. Thanks Sam!

White Chocolate Raspberry Rose Cake

For the sponge:

• 4 eggs
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g plain flour
• 50g white chocolate, grated

Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, until it leaves a trail when you lift the whisk. Remove from the heat, the whisk for a further 5 minutes. Fold in the sifted flour and chocolate then split the mixture between two 8″ cake tins and bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes, until golden and springy.

For the filling:

• 250g cream cheese
• 100g white chocolate
• 1 small jar raspberry rose jam

Melt the white chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water, then beat into the cream cheese. When the cakes are cool cut each in half so you have four layers. I always put them in the freezer for half an hour beforehand to make them easier to cut. Place one layer on a plate or cakeboard and spread with a layer of jam. Spread another piece of cake with a layer of the cream cheese, then place on top of the jam (cream cheese side down). Repeat 3 times, ending with a layer of sponge with no filling on top.

For the icing:

• 200g white chocolate
• 75g butter
• 125g icing sugar
• 2 or 3 tbsp milk

Melt the chocolate and butter together over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from the heat and beat in the icing sugar, adding milk a spoonful at a time if it seems too thick. Chill until a spreadable consistency, then spread all over the top and sides of the cake. I actually didn’t have enough icing as the crumb coat was quite tricky to do, so I ended up making half of this amount again to finish it off.

For the modelling paste:

• 125g white chocolate
• 2 tbsp liquid glucose

Melt the white chocolate, then beat in the glucose. It should create a ball that comes off the sides of the bowl. Chill in the fridge for a few hours (I left it overnight) then bring back to room temperature (or give it a quick blast in the microwave). I used this tutorial to make 4 roses, and cut leaf shapes out of the remaining paste.

Further adventures in apricot and white chocolate…

 

Following making my apricot and white chocolate cookies for the July We Should Cocoa challenge, I had leftovers of both key ingredients, so I decided to have a go at turning them into muffins.

I actually think I prefer these to the cookies, although that might be in part down to the fact that it was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day yesterday, so I actually had good light for the photos, which is very rare!

I adapted a recipe for blueberry muffins and probably put a slightly high proportion of chocolate and apricot in, as in addition to making the 12 promised muffins, I had an extra 20 mini cupcakes which are now being used in a muffin freezing experiment…

Yes, I am messy when I bake...

The mixture was pretty runny, but still held the weight of the chocolate and apricots so it they didn’t all sink to the bottom. I think the only mistake I made was not filling the cases high enough – as you can see in the photos the filling level varied, but the most full ones definitely looked the best.

I served these at a family lunch and they went down very well, so I would definitely make again!

Apricot and white chocolate muffins

• 280g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 150g caster sugar
• Approximately 100-150g chopped soft dried apricots
• 175g white chocolate, chopped
• 2 eggs
• 250ml milk
• 6 tbsp sunflower oil
• Zest of 1 lime

Sift together the flour and baking powder into a bowl then stir in the sugar, apricots and white chocolate. Mix the eggs, milk, oil and lime zest in a jug, then pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir in until just combined. Pour into 12 cupcake cases and fill to fairly near the top, then bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden.